Recommendation Current Position and Explanation for Slippage: Target Dates:

Transcription

1 IT Disaster Recovery 2012/13 Recommendation R1: A Disaster Recovery Plan should be developed and approved. As a minimum, this should include; the identification and prioritisation of key IT systems the roles and responsibilities of relevant officers and third party suppliers a set of IT procedures which should be executed initially to react to crises/disaster escalation procedures salvage procedures that deal with retrieval of items from affected sites the recovery and reconfiguration of all IT and communication systems details of additional accounts where monies may be sourced to aid recovery efforts a schedule in respect of the testing of the plan Appendix A Rationale for Recommendation: During 2009/10, there was no Disaster Recovery Plan. Recovery from the server Failures in February 2010 gave highest priority to restoration of the IT infrastructure. Meetings and telephone conversations with Heads of Services and Directors were held to agree the recovery plan / priorities and time scales. No IT Disaster Recovery Strategy was found to be documented to describe the role and development of a Disaster Recovery Plan and to improve the recovery options of IT systems Detailed Tracking of recommendation by activity A Disaster Recovery Plan should be developed and approved. As a minimum, this should include: the identification and prioritisation of key IT systems A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) has been developed and approved by Information Technology s Senior Management Team (ITSMT). There are a number of areas that require further work as detailed below. Information Technology s (IT) assessment of Business critical locations, operations and/or systems should be informed by Business Continuity Plans (BCPs). Senior Management approved BCP s should be used to define the agreed services and systems within IT s DRP. Emergency Planning to work with Directorates on BCP s and those agreed BCP s should inform the IT DRP. A DRP to reflect BCP priorities as agreed by Senior Management. IT will meet with Emergency Planning and work with them area/directorates have agreed and approved BCP s

2 to drive this forward. A recovery matrix will be developed and included in the DRP with prioritisation and categorisation columns. This will be presented to Senior Management for agreement and sign off. An initial meeting to discuss BCP s with Emergency Planning has been scheduled for January Meeting held with Emergency Planning. Emergency Planning are working on this and are actively developing process and templates. IT have helped with this activity by providing a Business Impact Assessment (BIA) template, and will be helping with further templates including the BCP. Emergency Planning has worked extensively with Directorates to develop robust BIAs which will inform BCPs and the IT DRP. IT have been taking advice from Sungard (DR Experts) on prioritisation and analysis of dependencies between systems. Completion of this recommendation is reliant on Service area/directorates. the roles and responsibilities of relevant officers and third party suppliers Engage Emergency Planning Team in development of IT DRP. Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly identified and agreed. IT to agree with Emergency Planning Team roles and responsibilities and update IT DRP with details of individuals to be contacted should DR be invoked. This is subject to the outcome of the meeting above. Information Technology s Management Team (ITSMT) is working on this as part of the DR procedures, once the list is complete it will be reviewed with Emergency Planning. Roles and responsibilities are defined within the DRP and have been agreed by ITSMT.

3 a set of IT procedures which should be executed initially to react to crises/disaster Detailed operational DR procedures to be developed and included in the DRP. Decision tree to be developed by ITSMT to enable a structured and clear response to a DR event. Resolution of the recent system performance issues has contributed towards the minor delay. A Decision tree has been developed and has been signed off by ITSMT. escalation procedures Escalation procedures will be developed in-line with IT Structure and will be aligned with capabilities, knowledge and skill sets. See above. The escalation procedure is part of the wider DR procedures, see above. Escalation processes with Service areas/directorates will be developed in conjunction with Emergency Planning and will incorporate BCP s. areas/directorates will have agreed and approved Directorate BCP s Emergency Planning has worked extensively with Directorates to develop robust BIAs which will inform BCPs and the IT DRP salvage procedures that deal with retrieval of items from affected sites Salvage process and procedures to be devised, working in partnership with ONI the co-location service provider, and included within DRP. The proposed procedure will be developed and included in the DRP. The Salvage processes are currently being devised and will be presented to ITSMT.

4 the recovery and reconfiguration of all IT and communication systems details of additional accounts where monies may be sourced to aid recovery efforts IT s DRP should detail the prioritisation of the Council services and systems inline with the agreed Corporate BCP. Categorisation of those services should be identified within IT s DRP and the recovery order agreed with CMT. Business Continuity Plans should identify critical recovery time periods for their services before material losses. These time periods should be included in the recovery matrix of IT s DRP. Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) to be developed and included within the DRP. Recovery matrix to be developed and included in DRP with prioritisation, categorisation columns. It shall also Include recovery time periods within IT s. Signed off by Information Technology s Senior Management Team. RTO s to be developed and included in IT s DRP once recovery matrix is signed off and included. RTO s have been included as a section within the BIA s, the Service Area s need to complete these in order for IT to include in it s DRP. RTO s have been included as a section within the BIA s; the Service Area s have been completing these as part of the BIA exercise above. They will then be included in IT s DRP.Completion of this recommendation is reliant on Service areas/directorates. An agreed fund for DR should be identified and held available to support recovery of services in the event of an emergency. Secure confirmation from section 151 officer concerning source of funding. Emergency Planning have confirmed that there is no funding for DR, and should DR be invoked the funds will be found corporately. It has been confirmed with the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) that DR funds are not available. In the event of a disaster corporate funds will be made available. This recommendation is reliant on Service areas/directorates. areas/directorates have agreed and approved BCP s areas/directorates have agreed additional funds

5 a schedule in respect of the testing of the plan An agreed DR test plan to be developed in-line with the Recovery Matrix and DR testing to be undertaken on an annual basis. DR Tests already underway, and are continuing to be performed as part of the incremental programme of DR capability enhancement. Back-up testing has commenced as part of annual DR test plan and included with the DRP. Backup tests already underway, and will be performed as part of the incremental programme of DR capability enhancement. The SAN (Storage Area Network) backup process has been reviewed and Citrix 6.5 fail over testing has been undertaken. Detailed test plan is being produced and will be signed of by ITSMT at the end of March. Internal data centres have moved to externally hosted sites which are in-line with SAS-70 and/or BS The final data centre move was able to be moved forward.